Casper High School
The air in Casper High's hallway was a familiar cocktail of cheap perfume, anxiety, and industrial cleaner. Kael Veyne moved through it with a detached calm, a silent observer in the ecosystem he had deliberately re-entered. His new, perfectly tailored jacket didn't go unnoticed.
"Check out the new money," Kael heard Star whisper to Paulina as he passed their lockers. He didn't need enhanced hearing; their tone said it all.
Paulina, the undisputed queen of Casper High, gave him a long, appraising look that was more about assessing his social value than his person. "The Veyne family. Old money, I heard about them from my parents. It was a sad tragedy what happened to his parents." Her voice was a blend of faux sympathy and sharp curiosity.
A larger presence barreled down the hall, expecting the usual crowd to part for him. Dash Baxter, a blonde mountain of entitlement, aimed a shoulder to shove past Kael. "Out of the way, rich—"
The shove never landed.
It wasn't a dramatic block. Kael didn't even tense. He simply shifted his weight a fraction of an inch, turning his body at the precise moment of impact. It was a subtle, almost imperceptible move, honed in Master Feng's dojo and refined by ghostly reflexes. Dash's own momentum worked against him; he stumbled forward, thrown off-balance as his target effectively vanished from his path.
Dash caught himself against a locker with a loud clang, blinking in confusion. He turned to see Kael standing perfectly poised, having never broken his stride. Kael didn't glare or smirk. He simply turned his head and met Dash's bewildered gaze with a look of cold, utter neutrality. It wasn't a challenge; it was the look one gives a piece of furniture that's slightly in the way. It was a complete and total dismissal.
The message was silent and absolute: I am not one of your toys.
Flustered and embarrassed at his own clumsiness, Dash's face reddened. He covered it by redirect his bluster to his favorite target further down the hall, his voice louder and more aggressive to compensate. "Hey, Fenton! What's the matter? Ghost got your tongue?"
Kael's gaze followed Dash's. There was Danny Fenton, looking paler than usual, flinching as a textbook phased straight through his trembling hands and clattered to the floor. The crowd around him laughed. Jazz, walking beside Kael with her own stack of books, frowned.
"He's been like that all morning," she murmured, her analytical mind already whirring. "Extremely jumpy. Inattentive. It's like his motor functions are completely out of sync. I think it might be a stress response to a new sleep disorder."
Kael offered a noncommittal hum. His ghost sense hadn't tingled; this was purely Danny. Through his refined Temporal Perception, Danny's movements were a chaotic stutter in the flow of the hallway. He was a live wire, crackling with unstable energy he couldn't control. So, it has begun , Kael thought. Right on schedule.
He knew the series. The foolish dare, the malfunctioning portal, the surge of energy that fused human and ectoplasm into something new. He'd felt the brief, uncontrolled spike in ambient ecto-energy even from his mansion—a firecracker compared to his own stabilized portal, but bright and messy.
"Perhaps he just stayed up too late playing video games," Kael said, giving Jazz a placating smile. "He'll be fine." He expertly deflected her next question about cognitive dissonance by asking about her psychology seminar, and she was off, theorizing about adolescent brain development.
His attention was caught by Danny's two friends. Sam Manson, a study in confident goth intensity, and Tucker Foley, a bundle of tech-savvy nerves. They were consoling a panicked Danny towards his locker, their whispers frantic.
"—just keep it together, man!" Tucker hissed, eyeing the passing teachers nervously.
"Everything's through me, Tuck!" Danny whispered back, his voice strained. "I can feel the bell about to ring!"
Sam gripped his arm. "It's psychological. You're in control. Just breathe."
Kael observed the trio. They were already in the mist of chaotic start of their journey. He made a note to formally introduce himself to them later. His favorite trio was going online, it would be no fun to not observe them from close.
The day proceeded with a series of near-catastrophes narrowly avoided. A falling trophy case phased through Danny in the main hall, earning him a week of detention from a furious Mr. Lancer for "mocking the laws of physics." In gym class, he accidentally turned intangible mid-dodgeball, and the ball meant for him smacked Dash square in the face. The resulting fury from the jock was palpable.
Kael merely watched, cataloging the manifestations. Invisibility, intangibility. The core powers manifest first under stress. His control is non-existent.
The real event began after the final bell. An unearthly chill swept through the school, one that made humans shiver and Kael's core resonate with a specific, agitated frequency. His ghost sense flared—cold and sharp. A low-tier manifestation, but emotionally volatile.
Through the window, the cause was clear: the Lunch Lady Ghost, a spectral matron of vengeance, was piloting her flying cart of weaponized food, launching meatloaf missiles at the fleeing student body. Kael remembered the ghost lady incident in the original series. It was because Sam mansion who changed the menu and made in vegetarian for better health, and angered the lunch lady ghost. That was the root cause of the trouble.
"Ghost!" someone screamed, and the orderly dismissal devolved into chaos.
Kael slipped away from the panicked crowd, finding a blind spot behind the bleachers. In a flash of silent, controlled electric blue, he became Tempest. The world sharpened into crystalline focus, every scream, every splat of food, every erratic movement of the ghost mapped and analyzed.
He hovered, invisible, high above the fray. This was Danny's fight. His first test. Kael watched as Danny, after a comical and desperate struggle, finally managed to will himself invisible and trip the ghost, sending her cart crashing. The victory was clumsy, desperate, and utterly effective.
But as the ghost began to reform, her rage intensifying, Kael knew the lesson was over. A cornered, emotional c rank ghost could still be dangerous for Danny. It's not like in the series, who knows what will happen. It was time for a different approach.
As Danny raised the Fenton Thermos, his hand shaking, a new presence descended.
The air grew still and heavy. A figure clad in black and electric blue, a cape of shimmering silver energy flowing from his shoulders, landed between Danny and the ghost. His aura wasn't a chaotic blast of power; it was a domain, a palpable weight of authority that made the very light bend around him.
The Lunch Lady Ghost froze, her anger replaced by primal fear. This wasn't a pesky child ghost. This was a Domain Master.
"Be still," Tempest commanded, his voice calm but absolute, resonating with a timbre that spoke of controlled power. He didn't even look at the thermos in Danny's hand. He focused entirely on the ghost.
Danny stumbled back, eyes wide. "Whoa. Who are you?!"
"A concerned party," Tempest replied, his gaze still locked on the specter. "Your rage is understood. To be disrespected, to have your life's work thrown away is a profound insult."
The ghost, stared, bewildered. Her fury was lessened by being seen, by being heard from another fellow who is way stronger than her. "They waste my food! They don't appreciate the nourishment! The care!"
"I know," Tempest said, his head tilting. His Temporal Perception allowed him to see the echoes of her obsession—the countless meals prepared, the ignored health code violations, the final, tragic slip on a spilled pudding cup that ended it all. "Your obsession is not with anger, but with care. It has been corrupted by their rejection."
He took a step closer, and she shrank back. "I cannot undo their disrespect. But I can offer you a new purpose. A place where your skills will be honored, not wasted."
Tempest turned. Danny, Sam, and Tucker were a frozen tableau of shock and awe. Talking in front of them will create more trouble for him. He actiaved his domain, everything seemed to be frozen in time.
Kael took away the lunch lady from there amidst the shock of the trio and flew over to a secluded place a little bit further from the school.
"Where?" she whispered, her form flickering with confusion.
" I have an orphanage under my protection. They are rejected from the society. They need meat to grow and survive. I want you to cook for them. But, first you have to adapt to the human world condition. I will invite you after your power is stabilized. Now, you are weaker than a d tier ghost even though you are a c tier ghost. You should go to the ghost zone now. I will call you when you are in good condition to work. And, I will change the lunch menu in your honor. I promise you that even if you don't work for me. But, you have to leave now. I don't want you to cause unnecessary chaos here."
It was a negotiation, not a threat. He offered her dignity instead of a cage.
After a long moment, her ladle lowered. The fight drained out of her. She gave a single, solemn nod.
Kael then blindfolded the ghost and took her to his basement swiftly and opened the portal. He left her there and said he will find her when she's recovered enough to work.
Oh! What a busy day! chuckled Kael.